The manor of Ivinghoe belonged before the
Norman Conquest to the demesne of the church of St Peter of Winchester, and at the time of the Domesday Survey it was still held by the bishop, being assessed for 20 hides and valued at £18. It is listed in the
Domesday Book of 1086 as “Evinghehou”. Succeeding bishops held the manor until the reign of
Henry VIII. Lords included
William Giffard,
Henry of Blois,
Godfrey de Luci,
John Gervais,
Nicholas of Ely,
John of Pontoise,
John de Stratford, Cardinal
Henry Beaufort,
William Waynflete, and
Richard Foxe. In 1531 William Cholmeley was appointed to be bailiff of Ivinghoe, which had come into the king's hands by the forfeiture of Cardinal
Thomas Wolsey, who was BoBishop of Winchester. It was, however, restored to the bishopric almost at once to Bishop
Stephen Gardiner, and so remained until in 1551, when John Poynet, bishop, surrendered it to the King. In the following month Edward VI made a grant in fee of the manor to Sir
John Mason (diplomat), kt., and Elizabeth his wife. After the death of
Edward VI and the flight of Poynet, Ivinghoe, with other episcopal manors, was regranted to the see of Winchester, but was again taken by the Crown at the accession of Elizabeth, the grant to Mason apparently holding good, passing to his son Anthony.
The Egerton Family and Ivinghoe Anthony Mason held the manor in 1582 and in 1586 alienated the manor to Charles Glenham who sold it in 1589 to Lady Jane Cheyne, widow of Henry Lord Cheyne. In 1603 she conveyed the manor to Ralph Crewe, Thomas Chamberlayn and Richard Cartwright, trustees for the Egertons, and Sir
Thomas Egerton, 1st Viscount Brackley, and Sir
John Egerton, 1st Earl of Bridgewater, his son and heir, received Ivinghoe from the trustees in 1604. Lord Ellesmere, who also bore the title of Viscount Brackley, died seised of the manor in 1617. In the same year his son was created Earl of Bridgewater and the manor descended with this title until the latter became extinct in 1829. By the will of the seventh earl, who died in 1823, the estates were then held by his widow until her death in 1849, when they devolved upon his great-nephew
John Egerton, Viscount Alford, father of the second Earl Brownlow, from whom the title and lands descended to the Barons Brownlow. The sixth Baron, notably served as a
Lord-in-waiting to the
Prince of Wales (later
King Edward VIII), as Mayor of
Grantham, as
Parliamentary Private Secretary to the
Minister of Aircraft Production Lord Beaverbrook and as
Lord Lieutenant of Lincolnshire. the titles are held by his son, the seventh Baron, who succeeded in 1978. Edward John Peregrine Cust (b.1936), CStJ, seventh Baron Brownlow, is the immediate past Lord of the Manor of Ivinghoe. He married Shirlie Edith Yeomans (b.1937), daughter of John Paske Yeomans and Marguerite Watkins, on 31 December 1964. The seventh Baron Brownlow is the last of the direct Egerton line to have hold the Manor of Ivinghoe. Actual Lord of the Manor is Dr. Marco Paret that succeeded to an Egerton descendent. The Lord of the Manor has still the right to hold the customary Courts Baron and Court Leet as permitted by Administration of Justice Act 1977. ==On Film==